My dad introduced me to fishing in the late 70's. He has now passed but I still take out his rod and reel with me every-time and fish with his gear and the same rod and reel he bought for me at the time. As far as I am concerned, the fish dont care what is above the water, they only care about what they want to eat. I have purchased other rods and reels over the years but still go back to what feels like home to me.

I've still got and use a couple of rods built on Butterworth blanks from the 70's, a 5128 and a 4108 (I think, can't remember the 4 wrap's length). They've both been cut down to make about 6 foot spinning rods, from the tip, the 5-wrap fishes 6lb, and the 4 wrap under 4lb, it does OK with 1kg braid on small stream trout down here in Tassie. They're both obviously slow compared to graphite, but will load with small minnows and place them better, or it could be they just suit me, being an old bugger!

They certain DO compare to modern rods. The three I use are all hollow-glass and are very comfortable to use (not too heavy). Plus they're certainly tougher than many modern rods - particularly graphite rods that are as fragile as hell. How many times (back in the day) did you see people breaking the tips off their rods?